Leonid A. Belyaev*, Olga N. Glazunova**, Svetlana B. Grigorian***, Irina I. Elkina****, Seraphim G. Shulyaev*****

Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
*E-mail: labeliaev@bk.ru
**E-mail: olga-glazunova@yandex.ru
***E-mail: lana384@yandex.ru
****E-mail: ira-elkina@yandex.ru
*****E-mail: firangel@mail.ru

Keywords: Moscow State, historical archaeology, monasteries, burials, epigraphy, fortification, tiles.

The article reviews the preliminary results of extensive archaeological works conducted by the Institute of Archaeology RAS on the territory of the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow in 2017–2018. The Convent ensemble is a UNESCO heritage site. The principle structures are dated by the late 17th–18th century; the oldest one is the main temple in the name of the Smolensk Mother of God dated by the second quarter – middle 16th century. One of the richest in Russia, the convent was a refuge for women from noble (in some cases, royal) families, including Princess Sophia, sister of Tsar Peter the Great, his first wife Yevdokia Lopukhina and others. The research uncovered traces of the first fence (the moat and the foundation of the wooden (?) wall), basements and ceramic floors of wooden dwelling chambers and household buildings. For the first time, the cemetery in the ground floor of the Smolensk Cathedral was studied in detail with dozens of burials of the 16th–17th centuries including those in inscribed anthropomorphic sarcophagi and with tombstones, as well as some parts of the surface of the 18th–19th centuries’ historical necropolis.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630007225-6